If I had a ballot for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame

From CNN: “Grunge groundbreakers Nirvana, disco dynamos Chic and the costume-clad, Gene Simmons-led pop metal band KISS are among 16 nominees up for election in the museum’s Class of 2014. The deep selection also includes ’70s and ’80s hitmakers Hall and Oates; college radio heroes the Replacements; New Orleans funkmeisters the Meters; sweet-voiced Linda Ronstadt; and pioneering gangsta rappers N.W.A.

I’ve already made it clear that I would vote for Linda Ronstadt. Beyond that, there are probably seven artists for the other four slots. Pretty much a coin flip, my ballot would include:
Chic, which is newly chic, its sound still relevant.
Peter Gabriel, who was not only commercially successful in the 1980s, but put out great albums before that; if for the song Biko alone, which codified understanding of apartheid to the western world, he’d be deserving. I have a LOT of PG.
Hall & Oates, who not only had massive commercial success over a lengthy period – I am an unapologetic fan – but also are great proponents of music to this day. And though it ought not to matter in this context, I really love Daryl Hall’s solo album Sacred Songs.
Yes, in part as as a paean to progressive rock, in hopes that King Crimson gets a nod next time out.
What I hope will happen is that they’ll pick the great guitarist Link Wray as an early influence, as they have done in the past with people who have shown up on the ballot, deserve to be enshrined, but who most people never even heard of.

The Meters, which helped beget The Neville Brothers, was essentially the house band for Allen Toussaint, and played on a lot of other people’s albums, so I’m hoping that they’ll get picked in the sidemen category, as Leon Russell did a couple years ago.

My other pick in these fan ballots was Butterfield, whose three Bs (Butterfield, Mike Bloomfield, Elvin Bishop) were also individually important in rock

*Not picking Nirvana, on their first ballot, who will get in anyway. I like them well enough; have three or four of their albums and their sound defined the early 1990s.
*Hope the Replacements get in some day – it was their first year as well.
*I had quite a bit of Cat Stevens in the day, and I’d pick him if there weren’t people I preferred.
*Have the greatest hits of the Zombies, and I’m just not sure a few hits plus one great album warrants the band’s inclusion.
*I know N.W.A. is massively influential, despite its limited output, but not feeling it yet.
*Never cared for KISS.
*Loved the hits of Deep Purple, but guess I don’t know the oeuvre well enough to decide if they merit inclusion.
*Know LL Cool J better as an actor than a musician.

I absolutely agree with you on Link Wray and the 3 Bs.
Deep Purple should be in. Kiss, like’em or not, also.
Linda Ronstadt should be in some music Hall of Fame.
Some of the others can wait, some don’t belong.

I heard Linda on an NPR radio interview during a long drive. Her extraordinary talent is undisputed, but she covered so many genres my only question is how is it possible to pigeonhole her into a “rock ‘n roll” classification. The Butterfield Blues Band is an outstanding talent…became big fans of them in high school and saw them live at clubs in NYC–they also were primarily a blues and jazz-based band but vote ’em in. Nirvana deserves it for the enormous cultural impact their music made and they were the first of many imitators (altho I’d pick Alice In Chains over Rush for their originality). For the reasons Jango gave I would never honor an extremist Taliban like Cat Stevens who renounced his derivative folk music entirely when he became an ultra-Militant Islamofascist. Kiss, a group of nice Jewish boys, were more marketing geniuses a la Alice Cooper than music virtuosos…hard to see them in with the likes of Frank Zappa and all the supergroups and guitar gods unless there was a second tier for commercial successes. I could live wit Depp Purple, although they lacked the staying power of many other groups based in the ’60s.

I get what ur sayin’ Mick, just thought your example of A.I.C. was what made me question you. I believe what makes them original and unique is that they are a 3 man band first and foremost…have the greatest drummer and just their stage set-ups and antics make them extremely original let alone Geddy Lee’s voice…..but I do hear ya!!!

They do have a great drummer and I’ve never seen them live, so I may not be fair, but I discovered AIC over 20 years ago and was impressed by their tight hooks, dark poetic lyrics and the ease with which they moved from acoustic to electric. It’s all good.

Note: The Times Union is not responsible for posts and comments written by non-staff members.